Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün
Gözlerüm yaşı lebüñ yādına mercān oldı
Göz ile göñlüm arasında yine ḳan oldı
Şol ki ‘ār eyledi dāmān u yaḳa çākinden
Ḥāline perde girībānla dāmān oldı
Zaḫm-ı tīrüñle ki cān çıḳmaġa ‘azm itmiş idi
Ḍarb-ı tīġüñ irişüp derdüme dermān oldı
Defter-i ‘ışḳuma ḫaṭṭuñ ġamıdur ser-nāme
Nāme-i derdüme zülfüñ ḫamı ‘unvān oldı
Müteḥayyir oluban bulmadı nuṭḳa mecāl
Mest-i ‘ışḳum beni kim görd'ise ḥayrān oldı
Bir gedāyidi cihān içre gezer bī-ser ü pā
‘Adli ḳul oldı saña ‘āleme sulṭān oldı
In English
1. At the memory of your lip my tears have turned to coral; between my eye and my heart there is blood once again. (Remembering the beloved's red lip, the tears flow bloody and take the colour of coral. "To have blood between" means a blood feud, enmity: the eye saw the beloved and set the heart on fire, and the heart in turn made the eye shed bloody tears.)
2. He who thought it a shame to tear his skirt and collar found that his collar and skirt became a veil over his state. (The lover driven mad by love tears his collar and skirt; one who does not do so, by keeping his garment whole, conceals his love. The couplet can be understood to mean that the state of a lover who hides his love is not visible from outside.)
3. When my soul, wounded by your arrow, had resolved to depart, the stroke of your sword arrived and became the cure for my pain. (To die at the beloved's hand is a remedy that ends the lover's suffering.)
4. The heading of the register of my love is grief for the down on your cheek; the curl of your lock has become the title of the letter of my pain. ("Hat" means both handwriting and the fine down on the beloved's face.)
5. Whoever saw me drunk with love was bewildered and amazed, and found no strength to speak.
6. He was a beggar wandering the world with neither head nor foot; Adlî became your servant and became sultan of the world.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The ghazal (gazel) has six couplets and is written in the remel metre "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "oldı" (became), and the rhyme rests on the sound "-ân": mercân, kan, dâmân, dermân, ‘unvân, hayrân, sultân. The word "kan" in the opening couplet joins the rhyme with a short vowel. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. It stands as no. 142 in Bayram's edition, among the ghazals of the divan ending in the letter yâ. According to the edition's footnote it is found in the manuscripts OR (31b-32a), T (40b-41a), M2 (35a) and İBB (22a-22b), and is absent from M1. The second, fifth and sixth couplets are missing from M2; in that manuscript the ghazal consists of three couplets and also lacks the pen-name couplet. The other variants are these: in the third couplet T reads "tīġin" instead of "tīġüñ", and M2 "derdine" instead of "derdüme"; in the fifth OR and İBB read "nuḳta" instead of "nuṭḳa" (to speech). To whom and when it was written is not known.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The subject of the ghazal is the marks love leaves on the lover: bloody tears, the collar torn or left untorn, wounds of arrow and sword, a tongue struck dumb with amazement. In the opening couplet the tears turn to coral when the lover remembers the beloved's lip; the lip is linked here to coral through its redness, and the lover's bloody tears take on that colour. The phrase "kan olmak" in the second line carries a double entendre (tevriye). Between the eye and the heart blood has literally flowed, and a blood feud has also broken out. The couplet rests on the idea that the eye, seeing the beloved, set the heart on fire, and the heart in return made the eye weep bloody tears.
The second couplet uses the motif of tearing the collar and skirt in reverse. The lover driven mad like Mecnun rips his clothes apart and shows his state to everyone. For one who thinks it a shame to do this, collar and skirt become a veil covering his state. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words "dâmân" (skirt), "yaka" (collar), "çâk" (tear) and "girîbân" (collar); "yaka" and "girîbân" say the same thing twice, in Turkish and in Persian. In the third couplet a contrast is set up between arrow and sword. While the wound opened by the arrow draws the soul out slowly, the sword stroke ends the matter at once. To die at the beloved's hand is a deliverance for the lover, and the sword becomes "a cure for pain"; there is an antithesis between "dert" (pain) and "derman" (cure).
The fourth couplet is drawn from the world of writing and the scribe's office: defter (register), hat, sernâme (heading), nâme (letter) and unvan (title) form a congruence of images. In its dictionary sense hat means both handwriting and the fine down on the beloved's face; these two meanings make up the couplet's double entendre. The lover's register of love opens with the beloved's downy cheek, and his letter of pain with the beloved's curling lock. In the fifth couplet the lover is drunk with love, and those who see him are struck dumb with amazement; "müteḥayyir" (bewildered) and "ḥayrân" (amazed) come from the same root.
The last couplet openly works the irony often found in Adlî's poems. The poet says that before he became the beloved's servant he wandered the world like a beggar with neither head nor foot; on becoming the beloved's servant he became sultan of the world. There is an antithesis between "gedâ" (beggar) and "sultân", and between "kul" (servant) and "sultân". The one who speaks these words was in reality a ruler seated on the Ottoman throne; by tracing the source of sovereignty to servitude to the beloved, the couplet translates the sultan's own title into the language of love. The phrase "bî-ser ü pâ" (headless and footless) also means, in its dictionary sense, both poor and friendless and aimless and adrift, and completes the beggar's state from two sides.
Bibliography
- Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 180, poem no. 142 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
